Within her dantian.
The pure white spirit root split apart into five-colored divine light. White, azure, black, crimson, and yellow intertwined, dazzling and resplendent. Dots of golden light welled up from nowhere, instantly growing into golden lotus flowers that bloomed all at once, as if at the dawn of chaos when heaven and earth first separated and the Great Dao birthed all life.
Almost at the same moment—
Outside.
An ancient, desolate, vast, and mysterious aura suddenly erupted from Xiao Minghuang’s body like a volcano. Endless multicolored radiance surged out, sweeping in all directions, condensing into a pillar of rainbow light that pierced straight into the clouds.
Buzz!!!
The boundless sky cleared, clouds and mist scattering.
Five-colored divine light illuminated the heavens. The bell of the Great Dao tolled, divine sounds echoed, and a magnificent, unfathomable vision completely shrouded this stretch of heaven and earth.
At the same time.
Dense mysterious runes coiled all around Xiao Minghuang’s body, surging like waves, rolling without end.
The world-shaking phenomenon spread across a hundred li of sky, nearly alarming every martial artist in Great Xia. Everyone raised their heads to look up, their pupils full of disbelief.
In this moment—
Deep within the imperial city, in a certain great hall.
The Xia Imperial Clan’s ancestral patriarch, Xia Hanbing, suddenly opened his eyes and looked toward the Savage Wilderness Forest, astonishment in his gaze.
“Five-colored divine light, illuminating the heavens!”
A month ago, he had chosen the Ninth Princess Xiao Minghuang as his successor, passed down his inheritance to her, and then shut himself away to rest, hoping to live a few more years to continue protecting Great Xia.
But this kind of vast, grand phenomenon stirred his senses and jolted him out of seclusion.
With his cultivation, he could clearly feel that the sky filled with rainbow clouds was saturated with extremely dense Dao resonance, enough to shock even him.
At the same time, Emperor Xia entered the hall and approached Xia Hanbing. He too had seen that brilliant sea of divine radiance in the sky, and could not contain his excitement.
“Ancestor, for such a phenomenon to appear within Great Xia, it must mean a peerless prodigy has been born. This is a sign that our Great Xia is about to rise!”
Xia Hanbing’s eyes also showed his astonishment. Stroking his beard, he said,
“A Five Elements spirit root—such a constitution is destined to reach the Yuantai Realm, and is almost unheard of since ancient times. If they can grow to maturity, they can suppress Great Xia’s fortune for a thousand years.”
“You must find this genius’s whereabouts and bring them to the capital. Cultivate them with all our strength.”
“I leave this matter entirely in your hands. I will not interfere again. You must not allow even the slightest mistake.”
After issuing his orders, Xia Hanbing’s aura quieted down again. His lifespan was nearly exhausted, his body decaying, his spiritual qi withered, his soul weakening. He could no longer move about freely and could only remain within a spirit-gathering formation to barely extend his life.
“Yes!”
Emperor Xia nodded respectfully.
Outside, he was the sovereign of a nation, supreme above all. But before the highly revered Ancestor, he was nothing more than a junior.
Emperor Xia understood very well that even the lowest Yellow-rank inferior-grade Five Elements spirit root was far superior to an ordinary Profound-rank supreme-grade spirit root.
As long as such a genius could grow to maturity, they would be able to shelter Great Xia for a thousand years. It was completely worth it for him, a monarch, to lower himself.
After Emperor Xia left, Xia Hanbing closed his eyes again, and the hall returned to silence.
…
Beiyang City, within the City Lord’s Manor.
Lin Zhengquan and the others had long since been alarmed by the five-colored divine light, yet they did not know what had caused such an unfathomable phenomenon.
While they were still completely baffled, they suddenly sensed a terrifying fluctuation of spiritual qi erupt from Xiao Minghuang’s courtyard and hurried over at once.
On the courtyard ground, golden lotuses were blooming. Droplets of golden light fell like rain. Dao resonance permeated the air, runes flew about, mysterious and extraordinary, making this small courtyard seem like a sacred realm.
Seeing this scene, Lin Zhengquan’s pupils shrank sharply, his face full of disbelief.
“This is… golden lotuses springing from the earth, flowers falling from the heavens… a Heaven-rank spirit root!”
At his words, everyone present sucked in a sharp breath, their eyes filled with shock.
“A Heaven-rank spirit root that only exists in legends has actually appeared today!”
“Such talent has never been seen in all the ages. What happened today will probably be passed down through the generations!”
“The Ninth Princess is actually a Heaven-rank spirit root? With such aptitude, not just in Great Xia—even across the entire Southern Region, I’ve never heard of such a thing!”
“For our Great Xia to have an unparalleled genius like the Ninth Princess… this is the greatest fortune we could have as citizens of Great Xia!”
The people present did not fully understand what a Heaven-rank spirit root really meant, but they knew that a Profound-rank spirit root was already a once-in-decades genius.
An Earth-rank spirit root was enough to become a true disciple of one of the Three Great Sects, with the qualifications to inherit the position of Sect Master in the future.
Then a Heaven-rank spirit root above that had to be so powerful it was beyond imagination.
Moreover, this was not just any Heaven-rank spirit root, but the legendary Heaven-rank Five Elements spirit root!
Perhaps one day, the Ninth Princess would reach the Yuantai Realm, lead Great Xia to prosperity, stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Three Great Sects—or even surpass them. It was not impossible.
But the premise of all this was that the Ninth Princess must grow up safely and not be snuffed out halfway.
After all, throughout history, the prodigies who died young were as countless as grains of sand in a riverbed.
Lin Zhengquan naturally understood this, but it was already far too late to try and keep this secret.
The rainbow clouds that had just filled the sky covered hundreds of li. Martial artists across the entire Great Xia had likely witnessed it. To try and conceal it was utterly impossible.
“First five-colored divine light illuminating the heavens, and now golden lotuses springing from the earth and flowers raining from the sky… just what kind of monstrous existence is the Ninth Princess!”
Lin Zhengquan gave a wry smile, but he did not simply stand around. He immediately ordered the one hundred thousand soldiers of Beiyang City to go on full alert in case of any accident.
…
Xiao Minghuang, in closed-door cultivation, knew nothing of what was happening in the outside world.
At this moment, she was looking inward at her dantian, staring at the illusory shadow of that Five Elements spirit root.
Under the medicinal power of the Five-Viscera Spirit Origin Pill, her original Earth-rank middle-grade white metal spirit root had evolved into a Heaven-rank inferior-grade Five Elements spirit root.
That spirit root was three inches long, its form illusory. White, azure, black, crimson, and yellow intertwined and coiled around one another as it took root within her dantian, constantly absorbing the spiritual qi of heaven and earth from outside.
“A Five Elements spirit root, huh…”
The corners of Xiao Minghuang’s lips lifted slightly, a faint smile gracing her peerlessly beautiful face.
Everyone was born with a spirit root. Their attributes varied, but they all fell within the Five Elements.
Whether metal, wood, water, fire, or earth, each had its own strengths, and in terms of the cultivation path, there was no inherent superiority or inferiority.
The attribute of one’s spirit root determined which type of heaven-and-earth spiritual qi they could directly absorb.
The quality of one’s spirit root determined how quickly they could absorb spiritual qi—the better the aptitude, the faster the absorption.
The number of spirit roots a person had had only a slight effect on the speed of absorption; it was not decisive.
Only when all Five Elements were present and circulated endlessly would the speed of absorbing spiritual qi undergo a qualitative leap, a fundamental change from spirit roots with incomplete elements.
Moreover, all things under heaven were contained within the Five Elements. With a Five Elements spirit root, Xiao Minghuang could clearly sense the fluctuations of spiritual qi around her, the breath of grass and trees, the weathering of rock and stone. Any change in anything under the Five Elements could not escape her perception.
“Then let me see just what wonders a Five Elements spirit root is truly capable of.”
